Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Sorry. Sorry. This is our 19th in-person meeting and 1st of 2026. The commission generally meets every other month on the third Tuesday of the month. The schedule and tenative agenda can be obtained by contacting the city's planning division or by visiting the city's website at minnotonkamn.gov. Residents can provide input on tonight's agenda via email or provide input tonight during this meeting if so desired. The Sustainability Commission's first meeting was May of 2021. Since then, we've accomplished a significant number of useful and practical actions for city residents. Areas of review for the commission include air, water, energy, land, ecological resources, recycling, and I'm pleased to say which includes organics collection, waste management, and other areas related and other sustainability areas not addressed by city code or another city advisory group. The sustainability commission has a has a unique role here in Minnitonka as we serve both as an adviser to the city council and as ambassadors for city programs. As an adviser to the city council, the sustainability commission makes recommendations on city plans, policies, procedures, programs, practices, and proposals that relate to sustainability and conservation of our natural resources. Final decisions are then made by the city council, not the sustainability commission. As an ambassador, the sustainability commission attends events to promote city initiatives with the public. And with that, I would I would like to move to agenda item number two, which is roll call. Miss Southerntherland, would you please Oh, >> I I will call. Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you, chair. Uh Carr is absent. Henry >> here. >> Ingham >> here. >> Uh Ingraham is absent. Meyer >> here. >> Norman is absent. Patine >> here. White >> here. >> Golib >> here. Thank you. There are seven of us tonight. Six. Sorry. I can't I can't pronounce I can't spell. I can do math but I couldn't tonight. Thank you. Next is approval of this agenda for our January 20th 20 26 meeting which is agenda item number three. Um staff, do you have any change orders? No. >> No. >> Very good. Thank you. >> Chair, I have one simple change. >> Yes. Um, I referenced the QR code uh for registration and it was probably a typo. It said QR code. So, >> this is for the minute so I think she's talking about Yeah. Okay. Yep. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Thank you for taking care. Yes. >> Thank you. Um, with that, would someone like to make a motion to approve the January 20 >> the motion? And I second. >> Very good. Um, staff, would you pull commissioners? >> Henry, >> yes. >> Ingram, >> yes. >> Meyer, >> yes. >> Patine, >> yes. >> White, >> yes. >> Chair Golib, >> yes. The motion passes. Thank you. Excuse me. Next is approval of the November 18th, 2025 meeting minutes. Does anyone have any changes? No. that we haven't already said. Okay. Very good. I'm looking for a motion to approve the minutes from January I'm sorry for from November 18th. >> I'll motion. >> Very good. Is there a second? >> I'll second the motion. >> Very good. Staff, would you pull the commissioners? >> Henry, >> yes. >> Ingham, yes. Meyer, >> yes. >> Patine, >> yes. >> White, >> yes. >> Cholul, >> yes. Thank you very much. With that, we're going we are moving on to our agenda items. Before we start, I'd like to do a quick review of the steps for each one. And prior to that, I simply want to mention two items that uh one of our commissioners is scheduled for to attend his last meeting uh which is Commissioner Henry. um we will if in fact that's the case and he's not able to uh continue on we will miss his insightful thinking and questions and he's been a tremendous asset to the commission and to the city of Metatonica. So we want to thank you very much for your hard work. >> Yes. >> Well thanks chair thanks everybody else. It's been honor to serve on the sustainability commission and the reason for my departure is I've been on the planning commission for eight years and after two terms that's enough I think for any office and elected or otherwise. So hopefully everybody can adhere to that one as well. But uh I'm not sure. We're going to talk to the city and see if that pertains to my time on the sustainability commission too. I've been here as of I think the four of us have been on since the inception since the first meeting in May of 2021. >> So five and a half years is great. Yes, that's how much we've been on it. And if I can serve some more, I'd love to, but if not, then I'd happily open my space for somebody else. Thank you, Commissioner Henry. Thank you. One letter, one additional item I'd simply like to mention. Uh this is a personal observation. does not represent my fellow commissioners, nor does it represent any comments or position from the city of Minnetonka. But in light of what we have we the state of Minnesota has experienced recently with regard to uh the behavior of uh ICE agents and uh people being extremely unhappy. Um, our hearts um and our thoughts are with folks who have been uh uh assaulted uh perhaps uh picked up who are American citizens and I think all of us understand the the need for the organization of ICE. But I think a lot of us would say that the people that are getting uh picked up and arrested um are not violent criminals. They're not criminals at all. And uh we hope that uh this uh chapter in Minnesota's history will end soon and uh no one else will be uh hurt or injured or traumatized by what's going on. So those are my personal comments. Uh enough from the politics. Let me briefly go over the the procedure tonight. Um [clears throat] I will ask staff to present their report to the sustainability commissioners. I will ask each of the sustainability commissioners to ask clarifying questions of our staff. If no one has registered to comment during the meeting, I will then open and immediately close the public input portion for the agenda topic. If an agenda topic is informational and as they are tonight, items A 5A, B and C, we will provide feedback to staff and then no vote is required by the sustainability commissioners. We will then move on to the next agenda item. Um, I'll make final comments and then we'll continue on. So, with that, I will turn over the meeting to uh Miss Southerntherland to go to item 5A. Thank you very much. >> Yes. Thank you, Chair um Golib and commissioners. Uh our first item tonight is item 5A. It's a discussion on the climate action plan or sorry, climate action and adaptation plan, otherwise um referred to as our CAP. Um it's an implementation update. So, um the staff recommendation for this item is for the commission to provide feedback and to ask questions on the update I will provide today. So, you can just keep that in mind. um an overview. So, first I'll give a brief overview of the September and November 2025 sustainability commission meetings. Uh what we reviewed at those meetings. Um a recap of the draft 2026 work plan uh specifically item number one and that was recommended by the sustainability commission at the November meeting. Um as this item pertains to that item one of the work plan. And then item three will be to just review the uh implementation updates that I've been working on, the commission's been working on. And then item four uh within this is the uh just collecting questions and feedback from commissioners. Just got to get my notes set over here. Okay. So um sorry. Um okay, so reviewing the meeting, the past meeting. So in September and November um the commission talked about the 2026 draft 2026 draft sustainability commission work plan. So in September um staff provided the draft work plan and that was based on the city's sustainability work plans in general primarily the cap. So each item um said you know a statement of what the commission will do and included a target and then we also noted what that action referred to. Um that draft was brought to the the commission as a way of just requesting the commission to build upon it to ask for feedback to make edits as needed. We went through a mentee uh information or thoughts collection process which was pretty fun. um the commission, you know, uh participated through that and we also had discussion and then based on those comments at the November meeting, I brought a revised draft for the commission to make comments on and there were a few minor revisions made at that meeting. Um so with those revisions, the uh commission recommended city council approval of that draft work plan. Um, and you'll hear me probably refer to that work plan as draft a few times tonight because it actually is still in draft form. The city council will review the sustainability commission 2026 work plan as well as all of the commission's work plans uh the commissions that have those work plans at their February 2nd meeting. Um, so it's possible that the council might make slight revisions or changes, but they will be reviewing and considering that for approval in February. So um in terms of the 2026 um work plan that was included in um those previous packets, item number one was to review bianual cap implementation updates from staff and to make comments and suggestions and then the target was to do that by annually in both January and July. So that's why we are meeting tonight and this is what that item is on. Um trying to make sure the so item number one we really started out with the implementation um I guess at the approval the start of the approval in 2024 when the cap was actually approved. Since then we've moved into this implementation. We've been working on climate action you know for decades as we reviewed in November. But once staff myself was onboarded in December, we've taken a look at this plan and say how can we implement the strategies included in here. So there's 50 strategies within this document. Um we've transformed them into an actionable um road map, implementation roadmap if you will. We have the policy direction. Now we need to know, okay, how can we hit the ground running and actually implement this plan? So we were doing that over the last year by breaking down all these 50 strategies into clearly defined tasks. We assigned staff lead. We assigned a priority. We also assigned a tenative start date for each of these. Um and that's what we reviewed at the November meeting if you recall. So item one um also includes that we'll talk about these tasks in a phased approach. And so we've included them in the work plan by quarter and that's to support this coordinated execution by myself but this is also you know a staffwide initiative as well. So we're breaking it out by quarter. Um and it also accounts for just staffing uh capacity within each quarter. Um and then in terms of prioritization the the process that I've currently been following is um the three steps. So we're starting with more of the uh administration phasing. So this is tasks that include um fundamental administrative roles. So like the work plan development like we've been talking about the last quarter. Um and then uh tonight as well working on tracking documents like what what does this look like internally and for the commission um and actually externally as well for tracking training um that I'm going through as the lead of um the project management process and then also just looking at like our public platforms for resource sharing as just like a fundamental task that we really need to make sure that's all squared away. Um then once we have all the administrative important documents set aside then we can start looking at our existing actions. So um within the cap out of the 50 strategies there's a quite a big handful of um actions that we're actually already doing. You might recall I'm seeing some nods and this is just a way of saying yes we're already doing this but can we collect more background to figure out do staff need more support? How can they keep going? how can they expand upon what they're doing? And as a new staff member, you know, I just hit my one year mark. I don't have a lot of this background. So, um, my process is to go through and collect that and make sure I can support them and figure out, um, kind of next steps for for their work. And that's also not just for other people's work, but there are some existing actions that community development is doing as well. And then lastly, we're this is looking more into quarter 3 and four and then 2027 as well. um new actions. So, there's a lot of new actions included in the the cap that are suggested. Um and so, we're going to be reserving those like starting to think about implementation later on once we have everything else squared away. Um and I say I have currently uh you know formatted a bit different on this slide because I think that this prioritization process will change um come later this year and in 2027 once we're only working on new actions. Then we have to start thinking about like okay so now we have this whole set of new actions how how do we decide on a priority for those um so that that time will come but this is the the process that we're using currently and okay so for the cap updates this might look familiar I shared this um at the November 18th sustainability commission meeting this is just a subset of that Gant chart that I created um this is a way I'm keeping track of what we're working on and what we have worked on. Um, so I'll go through and kind of give some highlights as what the last uh last quarter of 2025 looked looked like and what quarter 1, so January through March of 2026 will look like. Um, so strategy 33, I'm just going to go down the line. Um, was to host a website dedicated to climate action resources and updates. So, an update on this is that um I'm working with our communications staff and they're updating the Minota so sorry sustainable Minnotonko website. Um so, right now we have a ton of resources on that page. We're just going to go through clean it up, make sure everything is up to date. Um most valuable, we likely will be consolidating pages. Some other divisions have actually gone through and kind of almost have a different style for their pages that is a bit more user friendly. So, our page is going to be converted to that as well. Um, if you want to go on our website, the public works department already has that um kind of design. So, that's what we'll be moving to. So, uh once those website updates are done, I will share that with the commission and I'd love to have your feedback on, you know, any additional updates. But for now, we just need to go in and clean them up. Um, we've also talked about how to utilize Minnotonka matters as another platform um for the CAP outreach and engagement. If you recall, the city actually used that during the um the stakeholder engagement process. So, that was the platform where we had comments, people could submit public comments on there. The planning department uses this for their development projects. Um, so when they're collecting public comment outside of a meeting, people can submit their feedback on there. There's a lot of interactive options where we could do um surveying, for example, if we were out at a community event, we have a table, we can link people to that site through a QR code. Um, I think there's a lot of potential there. So, we're trying to figure out how can we use our main Minnotonka page um as maybe more of like a resource, more formal hub. And this Minnetonka matters page is more of a way to gain um interactive experiences, gain participation, also potentially linking out to other data sources, regional indicator information that we'll be talking about in a bit here. But, um updates on that, but that's a pretty fun project, I would say. Um, and again these these pages will link together. Sorry, Commissioner. Did you have a question? >> I did. Uh, if it's okay with the chair, a couple of questions. Ellie, you mentioned about sustainable Minnitonka and cleaning that up. >> Does the city have identified a resource to to dedicate time on a continuous basis to make sure that that remains current? >> Yeah. So, that would be me. [laughter] Well, myself and um really fortunately, we actually do have a communications staff who I um who is dedicated actually to sustainability updates, which is really cool. So, um they have, you know, a few communications staff in their uh division and I work with John specifically on this and I meet with him actually every two weeks. So, he's very in touch with our needs. So the right now it just our pages I would say need a pretty decent overhaul. So it's just a bigger undertaking, but uh the the hope is that once we get to a point where they're all up to date, it'll be very minor updates um and much easier to to kind of keep up on. So that's kind of where we're at now. But great question. >> Thanks. And the plan going forward is to keep Sustainable Minnetonka as the the base website for all things on the commission? >> Yes. Another great question. Um, and something that we don't have, you know, a final answer to, but as I've surveyed other staff and leadership, the consensus is is that we like the sustainable Minnotonka um branding for climate action and adaptation planning work. I think of it more as sustainable Minnotonka has um more of like the program, right? And then we have smaller projects that fall under that. And the climate action and adaptation one is maybe one project. Then we have our solid waste management programming. Let's say that could be another component of this larger sustainable Minnotonka um program. So that's that's what kind of what we're thinking. I think it's also a bit more inclusive people. Um I think it's not maybe as polarizing as some of the climate conversations that can go on. So we want to get as many people on board with this work and um what I'm hearing is sustainable Minnotonka kind of helps with that. So, it's not to say it's finalized, but that's kind of where we're at right now. >> Thanks. It's a admittedly small sample size, but a lot of people that I talked to, they they know they're aware of sustainable Minnitonka. So, I'm glad there's a push or at least to preserve that site. >> Good, good feedback. >> Any other questions before move on? Oh, yeah. for an observation and suggestion. Um, on the mobile platform of the website, um, there are a dozen icons that pop up, including sauna and the parks and things that might be actionable immediately. And that would be an ideal place to have sustainable Minnitonka icon um, rather than having to search for it through government sustainability commission. >> Yeah, great feedback. Are you talking bring it forward the homepage like the home page? >> Okay. Okay. Yeah, great feedback. Um >> that's obviously a conversation for our communications staff, but >> um I like where you're thinking, so I'll talk to John about that. >> The more forward we >> I'm sure everyone, you know, asks for that, but >> right, >> we can put our hat in the ring, too. Right. >> Any other thoughts or comments? >> Okay. Um, so that's where we're at with the website. Um, as stated, you know, we're just starting to work on this. So, as updates come about, I will share those with you. Um, but just want to get those squared away before we really get more, um, into the implementation phase. So, strategy 37, um, this is to create a business recognition program. Um so the my consensus is that the sustainable minnotonka um awards program is the program currently in which businesses are awarded for climate action and adaptation plan um related actions. Uh my recommendation as staff is to continue um considering that our business recognition program. Um if you want I can go into some of the reasonings uh but the main is that really it serves the purpose. Um I think the biggest and easiest way to describe it is like what would be the value of creating a whole separate program and at this moment in time I think there's a lot of drawbacks to having two programs and I really can't identify any benefits. Um, so for that reason, um, even though it says to create a business recognition program, my argument would be that we already have that and instead of creating a second program, let's figure out how to potentially update the existing program that we have and, you know, continue to align it with the new cap. Um, and if there's ways of just improving upon that. So, that's kind of where I stand. I'm seeing head nods, so it looks like hopefully the commission would agree with that. Um, and I will also say that in my short time of being here, we've actually continued to make some of those improvements already. Like last year, we separated out the residents and businesses so we can award both sectors, which I do think is in alignment with the cap to say we want both residents and businesses to participate equally. >> Um, so we've made that update and then we also last year we made it to be a bit broader. So anyone that's applying is being recognized, which I think also is in alignment with how we're branding the climate action and adaptation plan to say, hey, it doesn't have to be a a big um financial investment type of project. It can be smaller, you know, everyday committed actions that also make a difference, which is what we're trying to now change the um or at least update some of the the messaging for the awards program. So, we can again continue to work on that. It's definitely not like we're done here, but um that's kind of where we're at right now with where that action stands. Um and that that program u is going to go live, I guess. Well, the applications you can already you can apply right now. So, I'll do a quick plug. Can apply for the sustainable minnotonka awards. Currently, the application is live. Um go to the minnotonka mn.gov website, search sustainable minnotonka awards application is on there. It's a very short form. Um we will be accepting applications until March 6th and then the commission will review those applications on March 17th. So um yeah, next is the let's see strategy 51 and 50 oh yeah 51 and that is to develop near-term and long-term work plans. And that was actually a strategy that I added. So it's I guess an informal strategy, but one I think that's important. Sorry. Yep. >> Alli chair, just a procedural question. Would you like feedback on every one of these? You you've asked a question about whether the commission thought that sustainability sustainability Minnetonka awards would be better just to keep it one award versus two. And you said you saw nods. Do you need some affirmative affirmative discussion about that or to say that what do you think commission that we should voice our support or not support of it? >> Yeah, if you want to ask a question, I would um ask for the floor from our chair and he will grant that as as you'd like. So yes, we can we can certainly go through the process of collecting feedback if you'd like. If I could also just add and make sure that I understand also um Miss Sutherland is that >> we're essentially these work plan items have are already in the work plan. So it's not a matter of whether or not we want these items to remain in the work plan. It's just if you have questions or comments about how they should go moving forward. Is that correct? >> Yep. Okay. >> Okay. That clarifies it. Yikes. >> Okay. Um Okay. So, strategy the 51 is to develop near-term and long-term work plans. Um so, that's what we're talking about tonight. We have the climate action and adaptation plan. Now, we're just figuring out how do we implement it. So, essentially, you know, that's exactly what we're doing tonight. This is the first time we're actually utilizing this uh work plan. And uh we've also matched or tried to align the sustainability commission work plan to connect to the staff implementation work plan too. So that's exactly what we're doing here tonight and what we worked on last quarter. So 51 is in the works. Um 52 is also essentially what we're doing right now just working on reporting processes. So item one within the sustainability commission work plan is to receive these updates from staff in January and July. So we'll continue doing this um at those times. Um we're also going through a revised annual report process for the council which is a document created by the community development department. And um you know we've we've kind of uh followed the same process year after year is my understanding with just some highle updates but we're trying to rethink it and how do we be a little bit maybe more creative talk a bit more about um impacts in terms of measurable data. So that's something I'm working on and I actually will be sharing some of those um measurable uh metrics if you will in the next couple slides. So stay tuned on that. And uh again with incorporating some of these updates to the website, some of that will also think about how do we report this out to the public too. So not just internally, not just to the commission, but through Minnotonka Matters. How can we make this interactive um and interesting to the public so that other people can stay involved because we know as as we've talked about many of times, these are not just municipal actions. We also want to um you know reach out and uh determine how businesses are interacting and how uh residents are participating too. Uh strategy. Oh, so the next one is training and again that's related to reporting. I'm going through a project management training type of course. Um so it's just trying to make sure that I'm using the most efficient uh processes and tools available. So, it's something that, you know, I've maybe self-trained to some extent, like I'm sure we all have. Um, but it's also a whole um skill that, you know, people learn too. So, I'm taking a bit more formal training on that and I've only taken a few courses and I'm already pretty amazed at what there is to learn. So, if I learn any tips, I will share those with you all, too. But you'll probably see those pop up as we we go on here. And then lastly, this whole um section. And so there's an internal coordination item, the row, and then everything that follows underneath it really. Um, I'm just going to box together and say these are all related to internal coordination. Um, the ideal situation here is that these are all existing actions again that the city is doing to some capacity. Some may be more than others. Um some examples here are natural resource related items. Um emergency response items and then water resources is something that pops up a lot. So of course you know the city is already very invested and does this as a day-to-day operations. But um the question is how can we align it or support it better so that it also aligns and supports our uh cap. So to do this, I think what I'm going to do is um set up one-on-one meetings with these divisions and then from there assess, you know, what that ongoing uh set of communication is. And my hope is that I can kind of find like a point person for each division and then be able to meet more holistically with that group on a quarterly basis going forward. But for now, I'm going to be doing these one-on-one meetings. Um, so in March, uh, I'll probably be able to update you on some of those. But yeah, I think there's 23 different actions within this, um, section right here. So, we're actually making pretty good headway. Um, assuming we we work on all of these over the next quarter as proposed. Oh, and then I did want to call out one of the actions is 34. It's towards the bottom. Host outreach activities. That's where the commission comes in heavily. So, your entire uh 2026 Sustainability Commission work plan is supporting that. So, it's funny to me when I look at this list because I'm like, "Oh my gosh, there's all 50 actions and none of them are what we're doing." You know, we're doing so much work for the commission and all of the outreach, but really all of your work falls under that one row. So, we want to do a good job and make sure that, you know, we're showcasing all the work you're doing. It's certainly not just one row of effort. So uh but I did want to highlight that that's where the commission comes into play. The next item, so this is uh the next couple slides are about impact impact of the implementation that we've done and that we're um going to continue measuring. So if you recall, uh this is the regional indicators website. It's a greenhouse gas emissions inventory for particularly Minnotonka is what I have selected here. Um we have data from 2007 through 2021. The city I believe paid for this data and LHB is the consultant that um collects and tracks this data. You can see it's broken down by waste emissions, travel emissions and energy. Energy you can see tends to be the greatest proportion uh followed by travel and then waste and you can normalize this by per capita. So per household or per business as well. This screenshot is just not normalized. So, it's the total communitywide greenhouse gas emissions. Um, we are working with LHB right now. We've requested data from 2022 through 2024. So, they're working on that. Um, once that's available, I will share that with the commission and then LHB will put this on their website. This is a public website. Anyone can interact with this. You can select multiple different cities. So, it's not just Minnotonka that has um the greenhouse gas data. 2025 data uh will be available sometime later this year. It just lags for all their data sources. So, it just takes a bit of time to get that. Um I did link the website in case you want to see this particular page. Um I'm trying to think if there's anything else on here to say, but it's a pretty fun website. It's actually quite interactive, so you can highlight over the different bars to see it broken down. Oh, I know what I was going to say. LHB was actually one of the consultants that helped us with our climate action and adaptation plan, which is really great because um this data was used in our plan. So, it matches their data sources here. Um which isn't always the case. Even though they produce this data for other communities, not all communities actually used them for their climate action planning. So, I think it's pretty unique and um helpful that they're the same consultants that we worked with. Uh so aside from greenhouse gas emissions data, I'm also going through the process of um trying to determine what other metrics can we use to report on our progress for our plan. And as far as I'm aware currently there isn't anything in the cap that actually defines that otherwise other than you know our overarching goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 63% per capita, right? So, I think there's a lot of other uh performance metrics we could be considering um to track and I've collected a couple here. Some of these we actually are already collecting through green cities if you're familiar or remember that program. Um other other ones we're collecting already for the strategic um plan reporting that we do for city council priorities. So, I'll go through these renewable energy. Um, some data points that I've collected are off-site subscriptions for renewable energy. So, this would be if you participate in community solar gardens, otherwise known as CSGS, or renewable connect through Excel Energy. Um, their data lags as well. So when we report in 2024, it's actually 23 data, but in 2023, we had just over 3,000 um participants in that um for residential. And for businesses, we had about 177. And I will mention on here because there aren't any notes, um it doesn't necessarily mean there's 177 businesses participating. It means there's 177 um participants collectively within each of these programs and so one business for example could participate in renewable connect and a solar garden I believe. So I think that's a little tricky. Um we don't have that fully fleshed out. We can't see unique IDs I guess because the utility provides this and there's data privacy there. But I think it still is a um it gives us a comprehensive look at the community. So the ideal scenario is that you know if we focus on promoting these over year-over-year we potentially see some growth. Um people do pay for that though you know so that's an additional expense on their bill. On-site solar arrays for residents we had 44 more in 2025 than 2024 at 300 uh or sorry 234 on-site solar arrays for businesses we have 23. Um and those two I actually believe were on city facilities. [laughter] At least we had I believe two at least two that went into service in 25. So um that includes institutional um and public facilities too. Electric vehicles. Um I thought it would be interesting to collect public charging stations and the number of ports. That's something that we um already report on for green subsidies too. So in 2024, we had 30 public charging stations within the city and um a total of 45 ports. So that could be like one charger with two ports available. That's how Green Sub Cities actually um reports that information. And then registered electric vehicles, there's just over 1,500 electric vehicles um in 2024 that were registered within Minnotonka. So home efficiency. So related to the home energy squad visits this year we had significantly more because of our grant um to provide free visits. The the reporting for that's a little tricky because that grant that grant actually ran through October of 2024 through June of 2025. So it actually um theoretically increased both years. But um we had over 250 more visits in 25 than on average in 2024. And then um in terms of the income qualified visits, that was also something of interest that we had about 50 more than usual um between those two years. But again, the the timing of that Oh, I just realized that should say June of 2025, not 26. But um yeah, so that's the impact of those visits. And then in terms of CAP outreach, I shared this at the November meeting, but I wanted to share it again. Uh the sustainability commission assisted with this. We reached out to 2550 residents through CAP outreach businesses. We connected directly with 25 businesses initiatives. We had 17 initiatives and then the commission volunteered 900 or sorry 98.5 hours outside of commission meetings. So that's actually not even including your commission meetings now that I think about it. But um I appreciate your support. I hope you can see the impacts of this. I intended on actually providing waste data as well. I just haven't received that yet. So in July I'll share how many people are collecting organics who have recycling subscription. Um and then the the um how many pounds of recycled and reusable material we've collected at our community drop off. So stay tuned for that. Um, as I'm continuing to talk, one other question I'll ask is if you have any questions on other data that you want to maybe be seeing or think that could help. Um, so that's not something you have to have an answer to today, but you know, as you're thinking about it, um, let me know if you have any other ideas. I'll continue to think about it as well. So, next steps, I will continue to implement the Q1 work plan items we discussed. Um, and then the commission will continue to work on the 2026 work plan which supports this. Yep. >> Miss Southern, uh, I think Commissioner Henry has a >> question or comment. >> Could you go back one slide? >> Sure. >> Just to clarify, on this slide, it shows that there are discrete yearly data for this, but then the previous slide it was cumulative data. Is that correct? >> Um, for which one? >> Yep. This first slide looks like it's it's adding from that which was existing in 2024 to the 2025. So for example, we didn't have 23 new businesses put on site sold their arrays on in 2025. Is that right? >> Correct. >> Okay. And then in the next slide, those are discrete yearly numbers of people who >> correct. Yeah. >> Did the home audit plan. And and the reason for that is that if you participate in renewable energy subscriptions one year, you are likely going to be p well in this case you're still it's yeah that's a little tricky because you could drop off or not but that just the way that they report is a collective amount. So you can't really say it was one more or one less because it could be somebody else dropping off. Um and then for home energy squad visits it's you complete it and you're done. So you're not doing it again the next year. >> Well, that makes sense because it's durable goods if you have a solar array on your roof. So >> Correct. Yeah. So you're continuing to participate. Yeah. And same thing with the subscriptions. It's a monthly subscription. So um but yeah, I was thinking about that. I don't have units on here, but that that would be helpful. >> And it's really hard with this data because there's so much context that comes with it. And that's actually why I struggle a bit with um being very supportive of green subsidies because some of the numbers when you throw it out there without any context, you just don't have the background. Um so I think we have to be very careful when we report this stuff um because it can be taken out of context like you said. So >> I'm glad we have the human element in the reporting. >> Thank you. Commissioner, I have a question. Um, Southerntherland, [clears throat] with regard to 2026 and home energy squad visits, is there going to be any grant money that will help sustain this endeavor in 2026? >> Great question. Um, so currently the plan is we're continuing to fund the program at 50% like we've done for at least five or six years now. So, that reverted back as soon as that June of 2025 grant uh was spent. I have applied for at least one grant currently. There's other grants open and anytime I apply, I'm essentially asking for funding to support that. Um so if we are successful in any of those grant opportunities it would go towards funding these at um 100% because we've seen clearly there is uh you know benefit when we provide these for free more people participate. Um so it's you know to to be determined at this point but in 202 uh6 we have budgeted funds that are distinctly um dedicated to this to continue at that 50% rate which I will say is unique. Not every city does that. So that does definitely help um support but more funding the better, right? >> Thank you very much. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Commissioner >> um >> you asked as far as additional data and I think it would be helpful looking at um the capital improvement within Minnotonka. Minnotonka has been proactive in replacing vehicles with electric vehicles. I I'm aware of. >> Oh, y >> um but when we look at the heating, air conditioning, uh water heaters, um and the electrification that we're encouraging residents and businesses to do, um I would be interested to see what the likely trajectory would be for replacement. >> Yeah, great question. >> I know the goal is by 2040. >> Yes, great question. Um could you specify, are you talking about municipal or >> municipal? Okay. Municipal. Um, yes, actually for actually both municipal and community, we've we've had discussions about this. Um, one, I've actually applied for another grant that would help support some of that work internally. We are actually in the process of um hiring a facilities manager that would be working with this sort of just in general, you know, facilities management. And my hope is to continue working with that person. um going through one of the the new actions that is slated for quarter 3 of this year is to look at those electrification goals the 2040 as you mentioned it's all um very related though I mean it even talks about just like energy efficiency reduce greenhouse gas emissions so once that person's onboarded I hope to work with them um we would go through a process of identifying like what are our current assets what can we update um I still have to learn the the processes that facilities is already using. So, it's going to be a lot of learning and then coming up with creative solutions together [laughter] and hopefully we have grant money to support it. >> Yes. >> Um just briefly on the other side of it, the public side um which as we know the city facilities are only 2% of the city's greenhouse gas emissions. So, we also want to be encouraging that within the um residential sector and business sector. We've talked about um if there's a way of improving our permit process to identify when someone is updating their furnace or whatever appliance if there's a way of the contractor. It wouldn't be the resident, it' be the contractor selecting if they're going to electric if they were previously gas. We don't really know that right now, but that's something that's um on the to-do list. So that could help with some reporting. >> Uh Michelle, I have another question. [clears throat] When you hire or when an individual hires a contractor to say put in a a new furnace, >> Mhm. >> they people and the contractor decide on what percentage efficiency they want their furnace to be. 97% or 96 or 93. I'm not sure what the what the range is now, but that has to be that's decided before the furnace new furnace is installed. Is that information ever conveyed to the city? like, well, we we have uh 16 new high efficiency furnaces, but rather than saying they're high efficiency, specify the the percentage because obviously the higher the efficiency, the less amount of uh emissions and the less natural gas is consumed. And I have another question. >> I just have a question about furnaces. Um, what why would someone purchase a less efficient furnace? Is it less expensive or >> It has been in the past. I I couldn't tell you today because I haven't I haven't ever purchased a less efficient furnace. Um, but generally speaking, in the past, the higher the efficiency, the greater the capital cost, the greater the cost was to the homeowner. But if you could incur the add additional cost today, your monthly utility bills should be lower. And you know, there would be a point where it would be it would make economic sense to do that besides an environmental sense. >> So a more efficient furnace is not less expensive. >> No, it's more it has in the past it's been more expensive. If you wanted to purchase a se a 97% efficient furnace, the cost would be greater than say a 91 or 92% >> because of the technology. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> But I don't know if that's current as of today, but it it was in the past because I've replaced a couple in the past. So, uh, Chair Golib, I'm going to answer this question because one of my, um, other duties as assigned as the city planner is I work with, um, permitting and how we gather that information and and and send send out approved permits. And so, as Ally said, we're we're looking at ways to how we can collect under the state building code and what they allow us to collect and what they don't allow us to collect. um how we can collect additional information so we at least can report on that. Right now we don't know if someone's replacing with a gas furnace or with an electric furnace. So we want to start with very basic can we collect that information and then um can we collect um the type of furnace and and that more detailed information. There is a certain limit to what the city can request on building permit applications. >> Could Could residents if if you replaced a furnace and let's say you replaced it with a 97% efficiency rating, could people voluntarily convey that information or is that not possible? Yeah, chair and commissioners, people could um when it comes to furnaces, an individual is not allowed to pull their own um new furnace, right? There would be a contractor contractor doing that. And these are really good questions and maybe it would be useful uh Miss Sutherland if we could maybe at a a future meeting have have one of our building officials come and talk to you about how they review things, what they can review, what they um are not allowed to um push, so to speak, in in terms of um practices under the state building code because I do think that that would be really informative to your work. Unfortunately, neither Ally or I are are experts in the the specifics. >> Yeah, I I understand that. Um and I do know that the contractor has to pull the permit. Um [snorts] I can share with you that we did have a furnace reached its life expectancy. Um it was emitting not dangerous levels of CO, but they were too high from my environmental health background perspective. And we had the furnace replaced and we did replace it with a 97% efficiency. And I think the old one that was 20 years ago, I think it was maybe 92 or 93%. And uh so I I'm aware of those numbers personally and if and if there was some way to share that with the city and it wasn't too intrusive, I would be happy to do so personally. >> Yeah. Um chair, you saying that just reminded me. Um I believe so I believe we might be able to request that um information actually from the utility if you were to have received a rebate. >> We we we will Yeah. From I think it was from Centerpoint Energy. >> Yeah. So um that is something I actually have noted for myself to look into because the utility already provides the utilities both well centerpoint doesn't necessarily on as frequent of basis as Excel Energy through the partners and energy energy program they provide us data on uh participation in energy efficiency programs rebates I don't think are identified in that uh but that's that's a way of actually identifying ing, you know, how many people received rebates for efficient furnaces or what have you. So, >> okay, >> I'll look into that. Um, and thank you for all the the ideas. If you if you have any um you know, keep keep a note on it and share it with me. So, >> thank you. >> Yeah, >> Commissioner Henry. >> Thanks, Chair Ellie. I have a couple other ideas, too. I heard Susan mention about electric furnaces versus gas. And I'd love to have data, quantifiable data about who is choosing to switch to ground source or other heat pump because they eliminate the fossil fuels from the equation. So I just put a plug in if we could if we could record that data and show it year to year, I'd like to see that one. >> Yeah. [clears throat] Also, the city has EV charging stations and in your slide, you showed the number of charging stations in the city. Can the city figure out what the usage data is for each of those charging stations? And if so, that would be great to report on to show that a lot of people are using it. And then that would show that there's a demand for putting more charging stations in. >> You're talking about the municipal chargers that we've installed or in general? generally, but I'm assuming that since the city put in, let's say, the two out here in the parking lot, you would have access absolutely to that data. >> Correct. Yeah. So, the city owns six charging um stations actually. There's two at city hall, two at the community center, and two at Williston. We do have data on those. Um I would have to double check to I I'm assuming it's all public data. I I would have to check with our finance department on that. Um but we do have information on that and I could certainly share that with the commission. Um it's also something we could report in here. So um great idea there. We would not have data for the other uh the usage of all other you know non-public chargers. Um but the location of those is on uh plugshare.com if you're not familiar with that. It's a GIS map of sorts interactive and they have an application so if you know you drive an electric vehicle you can find the the charger itself on there. They share the kilowatt hours, but they don't um you know share a usage data. But I'll note that for future meetings. >> Could we work backwards and figure out from the kilowatt hours dispensed what the usage data would be >> from the private ones? >> Yes. Not from the in the homes, but >> I seem so kilowatt um in this case actually it's just the power. It's how much power it provides. So it's it ends up translating into like the speed in which it charges. So, it's not a it's not um a comprehensive amount. It's just per charge, >> not how many kilowatt hours have been >> correct. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. >> And there's no way to get that data. It would be great. >> We would have to personally ask them um which we could ask whether they want to respond um is another story. We also don't necessarily know who the owner of the charger is because sometimes it's maybe the property owner, not the business it's out in front of and it would probably be more work than it's worth honestly. But I know our chargers are actually quite highly utilized. So I think we would get good data from that as is. >> It'd probably be enough to share the data from Minnetonka's chargers. There's six. >> I think so too. >> That tell a good story. And then my last question on this one too. Commissioner Patine, she spoke glowingly of the Rididwell program and how it it you can use it to to recycle or otherwise get rid of from your place a lot of things that the the compost and recycling companies wouldn't pick up. Do we have and could we have that that as public data or at least to report on this one? How many people in the city have chosen to subscribe to Rididgewell? I think that would tell a good story as well. We would have to request that from Ridwell and they would have to be willing to share it. Um it's probably I would maybe say proprietary for them. I don't know if they'd want to share that number or not. Um that was my thought. But >> yeah, Chair and Commissioner Henry, I I would agree with that. It's a request that we can make of Ridwell. Um and they may be willing to give us just a total number. >> Um they certainly >> um we can request it. I don't I I actually have Ridwell myself. I would not want my location or my information shared with the group. >> Oh, absolutely not. The the most I would like to see would be the total number of people in the city that participate in Redwell. >> I could imagine they would happily share that. >> Um Ashley. >> Okay. [clears throat] So, I wanted to follow up really quickly. Thank you, chair. Um, number one, uh, I'm going to start backwards just since, uh, on the Redill thing. Um, yes. Uh, uh, excuse me, Commissioner Henry, love me some Redwell. It's fantastic. I do think it would be nice to get that information, and I I agree. Um, uh, Miss Sutherland, at a high level, I I would not imagine they would have issues sharing um, what their numbers are of like just people in the city who use it. something that I would be interested in and I haven't gone back and looked at this is um I remember when I went and first purchased it which is now probably a year maybe a year and a half ago I'm not quite sure is they hadn't expanded like we were like at the cusp of where they had expanded their service to and so I don't know if it covered all of Minnetonka so I'd be curious how far out if if it it does cover all of Minnotonka now just um so that would be something to look into which I think that probably could be easily seen just by checking online so that's something even one of us could look into um so that would be something that I'd be curious to um just to make sure that we uh all Minnetonka residents do have access to it. Number one, especially if we're looking into how many Minnotonka residents are utilizing the service. Um and then additionally with the um the charging station. So, um I I don't think you were at the last meeting, uh Commissioner Henry, I just recently got an electric vehicle. Public charging is not for the weak. [laughter] It is not for the faint of heart. I will tell you right now, I had many grievances that I aired regarding my public charging as I was waiting. I also um am a uh proud uh uh dweller of a condo which is also an HOA and so I got to share the experience of trying to obtain a uh charging station at within the HOA. And so that was a very unique experience that I got to share with the commission and how we can better advocate for homeowners who have HOAs and how you can get a charging station in your home and EV readiness and yada yada yada. But anyways, so something that I will say is um I was I was not able to utilize the uh the charging stations for the city the city charging stations which I was uh disappointed in. Um, I was able to use like the slow chargers but not the fast chargers, which ain't nobody got time for a slow charger. I'm just gonna be honest. Ain't nobody got like if I if I was like I used it for when I came for our meeting that one time, which was nice cuz we're going to be here for a couple of hours. But a slow So just Do you have a EV? >> I don't. >> Okay. So, I'm just going to give you a quick little cuz if you don't have one, you don't know. A slow charge will take my like would take my car 9 hours if I was at like on E. Okay. Um, a fast charge takes my car an hour. So, ideally when you're public charging, you're trying to you ideally it'd be ideal that you'd use a fast charger, but like if I was at work, then I' i'd want a level two charger. Like I'd go to work, you're working, you're at work for 8 hours a day, so it's perfect. >> Um, additionally, something that is also interesting to see. So, in addition to the um uh how many people are utilizing them, it something else that's interesting to see is the ratings that people have to say because I will say that some of the ratings for these public chargers like the ones that there were not nice comments. I will tell you all that right now. So, uh so that's something else that we might want to might want to look into. Um so, just things food for thought about how we can make public charging as accessible as possible. I would, all seriousness aside, if I had a public charge, I would take the car back to the dealership and be like, "Give me a hybrid." It's It's not for the faint of heart. If it's I I did get the Charger finally with the HOA, we worked it out. We came together and they approved it. But I would not I immediately texted uh Commissioner um Damn, I can't remember your last name. Thank you, Commissioner Meyer. Um and I was like I I think I sent her center a screenshot of the approval. [laughter] from the HOA board. I was like, "Finally." And I had the electrician out the next day. I was like, "Get to my house right now." Like, [laughter] >> "What was the reason why you couldn't use fast chargers?" >> So, I could use the fast chargers. I just the ones here, they they don't it doesn't have So, the one the connection So, I have the car that I have is the same same kind as like a Tesla. Like, it's not a Tesla, but it has the same connection. But what they have here for their fast charger, the connector that I have, it doesn't connect to I'd have to buy a different connector. And so um like uh so I have to go to the Target enriched. So anywhere that has a Tesla char supercharger I can go there but this that's not what they have out here. And so their level two charger I can use my connector to connect to that and that'll connect to my car but not the level three charger. So or the fat the fast charger basically. >> So the connectors aren't you can use one connector with the other one. Why are they not? >> So they if you go out to ours, they actually have two different kind which is really nice because so that means two different styles of car. It's a whole world like I once you dive into EVs it's not it I want to encourage people to get EVs but I I think I wasn't even fully prepared even with the research that I had done. You guys I went to the EV um we was it three of us we went to the EV um seminar that they had. still was not prepared when I got the EV car and I got a very standard like you know the Tesla charging like that's a very standard you know because it's been around forever so if you have a Tesla style connector that's a very standard model but anyways I say all that to say uh is there like what we have out here there's it's it connects to two different styles and I don't know like I don't know what style they are if it's or what car style it is miss Southerntherland do you know I feel We talked about this. Is it a Honda? What who What car is it? >> I So, in terms of what it connects to or Well, so I'm wondering why you can't because the cars that I have, I've always been able to connect to these. So, it's really interesting to hear that you're having I remember this last time, too. I I don't know. I mean, I know that there are certain ports and typically I thought that there was adapters that you could there are very easily buy, but it sounds like it's maybe not as easy as I always imagined. So, but I I took a note because I really do think that that's a critical issue if people still can't access charging an EV charger. >> And my last thing I will say is some of the comments that I saw about the ones out front where people are like the fees were astronomical. I'm gonna tell you right now in general I have not found EV charging to be it can be pricey that you can offset pricing by charging at non you know um uh what am I trying to say like non uh thank you non- peak hours like off peak hours in general >> but there is definitely a need for it cuz I have had to wait before at Ridgel sometimes not frequently but I have had to wait to charge my car if I go like depending upon what day of the get it. I've had to wait. So, there is a need for it for sure within the city of Minnetonka for more chargers, I believe, [clears throat] especially fast chargers. >> If I can interject from what you're talking about too, just a it's a different story, different cultural thing, but whenever I go over to Belgium and the Netherlands, I go there a couple times a year to do deliver some training. And at every highway rest stop, every exit on the highway, there's a gas station. And at every gas station, there's a separate EV charging station. They have solar panels up on the roof of this to augment some of that. But it's beautiful and it's so convenient and it really speeds the adoption of EVs. And I would love to see something similar to that catch on across the US, Minnesota, Minnetonka specifically. I know we don't really have any interstate rest stops in Minnetonka, but if we could do it somewhere to integrate it with other gas stations to make it easier and then at least people can go in and get a bite to eat or something else. right now if you're in a parking lot and somebody's there and I can see why people rate them low because they're not that convenient. >> We have hybrid vehicles and and yeah, we haven't gone EV maybe for that one, but I don't know. But I would like to see more people adopt EVs and make it easier for them to do so. >> Commissioner Henry, I just have one followup. Um, when you're saying they're at the gas stations, do you think it's the business owner that is installing them? Like they're owned by that same company? at every rest stop and every exit on these highways over in Europe, >> there are different companies that own the the gas stations, right? >> And it looked like it was sponsored by the country. So, it was state sponsored. >> Oh, okay. So, it's [clears throat] it's okay. >> The logo wasn't >> separate but near each other. >> Yeah. It wasn't a Luke Oil or a Shell or it was a it was a Charge Netherlands or something like that, but it was right next to the gas station. >> Okay. So I think these rest stops are what public areas and then they leased out to these private gas stations but then they also thought it would be beneficial to have a EV recharging station at that same spot. I also wanted to follow up um Minnetonka's proactive to have the chargers in the first place and I know the first year they were free which was awesome um or 18 months or so. Um but it brings up a good point that we uh could consider having some signage about vehicles that um are adaptable to it um to the fast charger. Um the other information I find that the charging for um is quite easy once you find a system that works. >> Uh charge point and you've got the account it can be very easy or the Tesla chargers but the cost is generally about twice what you can um what the cost would be at home. And overall, if you compare the mileage on an electric vehicle and the the cost for the electricity, that is half of what gasoline equivalent would be over the years. So save at home, save by having electric vehicle. Um, but if we could model Europe, I would agree. >> Thank you, commissioners. Um just a few >> sorry last thing also if there was there may be signage or a QR code it was cold outside and dark so don't just want to add that disclaimer also so could might be user issues >> miss other going back to your one of your questions prior to this discussion was there any additional data that we would like you to think about getting if it's not too ownorous I putting on my old solid waste management, environmental planning and engineering hat. When we talk about recycling programs, I'm not sure if if the city is able to readily get the information in terms of what used to be called the citizen participation rate. You know, what percentage of people are sitting out there recyclable, their traditional recyclables. That was very, very important many, many years ago. I think it still is. It should be not ownorous at all from from the perspective of any collector to obtain that information. I mean, I think I could generalize and say virtually everyone in my neighborhood is setting out their recyclables now after many, many years of public education. It would also, I think, be interesting and this information should be readily available to find out what quantity of recyclable materials are being collected from within the city of Minnetonka, at least from the residential uh dwellings. In that same manner, I it would be interesting and useful for us to know what the citizen participation rate is for the collection of organics. You know, I mean, I think now we know it's maybe 25%, but I think having that routinely collected and updated would be beneficial. We would know, well, in 2025 it was X, 2026 it was up. And it's not I'm hoping that the trend will always be up but we could have some blips where it goes down. I also think it would be useful and again not ownorous to to know what quantity of organics is being collected. In the past people used to talk about what is the landfill diversion rate. you know, what's the quantity from this geographic area that's being diverted from being pounded into into a sanitary landfill? And I I would think that information from your perspective should be readily available from the from the companies that are collecting that information. And if they want to know why, we want to look at the trends. We just want to we want to assure ourselves that it is increasing and not going down or oscillating. And one way to do that is with the citizen participation rate. But if you want to look at the landfill diversion rate, you need to look at quantities. Hollers always like to talk about volume. Well, environmental engineers and planners like to talk about quantities because you can't play games with the quantities, but you can play games with volume. and you can play games with citizen participation rates because someone may not set out very much. So those are just some of my thoughts. >> If I may, Miss Sutherland and uh chair and commission, all of these are good data points and as someone who's kind of new to this whole sustainability world, really um interesting and I think would be good information. I just want to manage some expectations here that um we're we're talking about a lot of stuff and what we were hoping to get from you. What I think we did was um data for the work that we're going to do in quarter 1. And so we've taken all of these notes and as we get into the work that is specific to the things that all of you have talked about, we'll try to get that data for you. I just want to manage expectations. I I understand food some food for thought for for future data collection. >> Thank you. >> I appreciate that too. And um as I'm hearing the list, it uh like Miss Thomas said, you know, we're not going to have this information this month or next month, but it's something that we can work over the next year to figure out can we collect it, how can we collect it, what's useful, what's not. I think in some ways we want to focus on data that we can actually impact. So like Ridwell for example, while the information is helpful, it's a private business and we actually my understanding is like we can't just go out and promote Ridwell. So we don't necessarily as a city affect that data point. So I think we just have to think through all of these. Um but they're all really really great ideas and I really appreciate it because I was sitting there going h what should we collect and this is an amazing list. Um, I did want to mention in terms of the EV charging and trying to foster more people installing these, and when I say people, I mean businesses. Um, um, I presented to the Minnotonka Business Council in September. We had 19 businesses that were present. And while we got through a bunch of information, I also wanted to do a plug for EV charging. And at the time I used um I shared a map of the plug share uh interactive GIS map and I showcased how there is an extreme lack of charging anywhere west on Highway 7 um past Minnetonka and really like there's just this whole gap along that way and you think of how many people are commuting along that and how they're if you're located as a business owner along that corridor that that could be a really great opportunity for you. Um, at the time I also wanted to supplement that information with I think I think I don't know for certain that I think Minnotonka has a higher than average uh percent of EVs within the community than possibly other communities. I need to request additional data which is the number of registered vehicles within the city in order to be able to do that calculation. Um, but my hope is that we can kind of maybe form this case study or, you know, um, argument of why should you install electric vehicles as a business owner. We've, you've come up with some other ideas tonight. Um, but I just wanted to plug that as something that maybe we can continue to have a conversation on cuz um, I do think we need to educate and inform and just make people aware of. Um, and maybe it's something we could actually add on to the outreach we're doing for the business blitz later. Maybe it's another pamphlet we slide in like, "Hey, have you considered?" Um, let's see. Was there any other questions I had? I think >> Can I add on to that really quickly as you're talking about it? No, I love that. That's something that you added to people, especially when when you're bringing information that tells them, hey, this is where the gap is. This is also something that can bring hopefully um business to you as well because >> you know when I am charging at the time I was going into Target for cuz you know you have an hour of time to kill usually at that point in time. So I love that you're doing that. Um I would hope in the pamphlet hopefully it tells them like what the upfront costs are associated with it. I would think it can't be that much you know like what just understanding as someone who's installed one at home like you know. So, I think that's a great way to like a great thing to add on to if we're already talking to businesses anyway. So, I like that. >> And well, we're also talking about how do we incorporate it into the development process, too, because it's so much uh more affordable to do it during that construction phase. So, lots to talk about there. Okay. >> Oh, sorry. Do you know if that would be like profitable for businesses or is that like a an expense that they have to consider for like sustainability sacrifice? >> Great question. Um, and thank you, Commissioner Patine, for also bringing that up. I forgot that, you know, when I was talking to them, I wasn't just like, fill this gap for us as a common good. I mean, it's it is to bring in businesses. Um, what I found by talking to other uh communities. It sounds like in some cases that might be the property owner of a strip mall. So, it might not necessarily be the business owner themselves, but the property management company might be getting some profit there. So, it all depends on how much they're charging as a fee, how much it costs to install it. The farther it is from your existing utilities, it can get really expensive. Um, there's actually private like third-party companies that will approach you as a business and say, "Hey, can we install a charger on your property?" And the only the only group profiting is the third party. So, there are businesses that that's their whole business. Um, so yes, I think it can be profitable. It doesn't always have to be. >> And is that like is that like something like we can um include in like the pan in like the pamphlet? >> Yes, I think and we have to be realistic about costs and stuff, but yeah, that would probably Yeah, that would definitely be part of the conversation trying to bring business into your local business, too. >> Yeah. >> Well, great conversation. Um, I didn't actually explicitly say this, but I think we covered it. Um, I was just wondering if you had any questions about the the whole, you know, Q1 work plan that was shared and the data shared, but I think I probably heard all of those questions and comments. So, if you're okay, I'm going to move on to the next item unless Yep. >> Oh, your chair or your mic chair. >> Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Um, with that, uh, since I think we've asked you quite a few questions on item 5A, um, since no one's registered to comment, I will open and immediately close the public input portion for this agenda topic. Please continue on with item 5B. Thank you. >> Great. >> My mic this time. Okay, let me pull up my PowerPoint again over here. All right, so this is uh item 5B. It's a discussion on the 2026 sustainable com um sustainability work plan schedule. So the recommendation here is to provide any feedback or questions on the draft uh work plan schedule that's presented. Um, we'll do a quick recap on item 14 of the 2026 work plan. We'll review what that schedule looks like, the draft schedule, and then I'll just collect any questions or feedback the commission has. Um, so this says one, but it meant I meant 14. Um, item 14 of the plan that the commission recommended was to create this implementation schedule and to discuss it at this meeting. So essentially what I did is I took the draft work plan and I put it into a calendar. Um and this is the draft here. So um again drafted. So I'm here to collect your thoughts, feedback. Um but the way that I put this together was through a few different considerations. So first I wanted to incorporate all agenda items and ambassador activities planned for 2026. And it's definitely certain that more agenda items will come up. These are just the ones that we know of. Now, I also wanted to note um you know there's always ongoing items, items as assigned, that sort of thing that can come up and those are noted at the very bottom of this. Um I wanted to equally distribute the work plan items per month and per quarter. So that's why it's sectioned out um in four quarters. I also um you know took into account predetermined event dates. So we can't switch when Summerfest is held or open house. So those are obviously as assigned. Um I did include pre-post and day of event needs. So while we obviously know that the day of uh of the event has a time need, this accounts for pre-event planning um that the commission could and has signed up to help out with per the plan and also some postoutreach work as well. So that's incorporated in here. And then I also took into account seasonal impacts of outreach. You know, anything over the holidays is really difficult to get people to engage with, at least in my experience. I think summer can also be very tricky as people go up to cabins and they're just busy having fun in the summer. So, it's not always a great time to connect. So, I I took those items into account. Um, so I'm just going to briefly go through this. Um, so I'll go through each month. So January we have obviously tonight's it agenda items and then ambassador duties. So um tonight the next item will be a discussion on the subcommittees. I'll be sending the subcommittee coordination is just basically like the initial emails that I'll connect everyone with and we'll set some um meeting times up. If you sign up for the tour committee, which is one of the three committees we'll talk about in the next item, we am hoping that that committee can actually meet still yet this month to um discuss the tour that I have tenatively scheduled for February. So, if you want to sign up for the tour committee, um just be aware that that might be meeting in the next couple weeks. Um February, we do not have a commission meeting. Um but the ambassador opportunities are to help to promote the sustainable Minnitonka awards and also um potentially have a tour scheduled. So that's all tenative to see if we can find somewhere that you know it's pretty easy to schedule and get into. Um but a tour is on the agenda. And I also meant to note that anytime you see number one or number 15 on here, that's referencing the agenda, sorry, the work plan um item that is related to for March. Um we have we have the commission meeting and that's when we're going to review the sustainable Minnotonka award applications that we receive and ambassador duties for that would be the switch together event. So, Henipin County is hosting another solar group buy program and they're having an event at Ridgedale Library actually that night. So, I thought that the commission could help um participate in that. The um everything electric and reuse swap event committees will meet separately sometime in March for uh event planning purposes. And then community connections outreach, which is something that's a part of the work plan, um can happen that month, too. And that would just be trying to reach out to people, sorry, groups in our community that might want to help um promote the reuse swap happening around Earth Day. So, I'm thinking like I a food shelf or local places of worship. Um I think that's an opportunity for us to kind of do a bit more outreach there. April, we do not have a commission meeting. Um, but we have some ambassador opportunities which would be on the 20th of that month is when the city council will likely award uh the sustainable Minnitonka awards if it's um same process as last year. Ridgedale library will host their Earth Day event again. And then we also have the Earth Day clothing swap in May. Um we're going to have a discussion on greenhouse gas and environmental impacts of drive-thru. So, that's to be determined, but that's something that, um, the city council has actually asked the commission to look into. So, um, stay tuned for that. I'm just realizing that date is wrong, but that should say the 5th or sorry, um, five >> 19. Uh, ambassador activities. So, we have the everything electric subcommittee meeting again that month and interviewing sustainability champions. So, as part of the work plan, the commission wanted to build a better base of case studies and examples of what residents and businesses are doing. And that would be the month where we could potentially be doing phone calls or meeting with people one-on-one and just collecting like short stories. June, again, no meeting, but we have ambassador opportunities, which are the everything electric um event at uh Summerfest, and then farmers markets start up in June. in July. Uh that's when we have the next CAP implementation update like we're doing tonight. Ambassador activities are um preparing for a business blitz that will be happening in August. But I'm imagining this is us doing some phone calls, initial outreach. The ideal scenario that we're going to try to follow this year is calling businesses and kind of getting like their okay for us to come out. Um that's the ideal scenario. I don't think everywhere we stop we'll maybe schedule, but we'll do some pre-outreach work together. There's another farmers market that month. August, again, no commission meeting, but um we're going to plan to schedule two business blitzes. These will be defined to certain um geographic areas where we're going to maybe 10 to 20 per day. So, two different days for that that will be scheduled. And then another farmers market. September um we do have a commission meeting. Um, apparently there are no items yet, but there there will be some things, but um, I guess I didn't come up with anything for that. And um, business bliss business blitz post outreach, which I was talking to CE, and they actually highly suggest that we do follow-up phone calls as a way to say, "Hey, we were at your business on this date. We wanted to check in to see if we can get you signed up for X, Y, and Z." and they find that that that is actually probably even potentially more successful. Um so they can help with these three um activities in July, August, and September, but the commission is welcome to help out as well. And then I also have that flagged for all subcommittees meeting um in October. no commission meeting, but we have the ambassador activities of another everything electric exhibit and that will be at the open house and another opportunity to do more community connection outreach and that would be to connect people with the swap that's planned for November. So again, that's just tentative, but I'm looking at the schedule and trying to figure out when we want to host another swap. In my last job, I hosted um it was actually a winter clothing swap in November and it was very successful around the holidays. Don't know if we want to necessarily do a winter clothing swap, but I think a lot of people are looking for things around the holidays. So, I I do think it's a a good time to consider that for that meeting in November. um a work plan report would be then um created for the commission and the council and then December just the farmers market to just try to keep it a little bit lighter. But um again alternative um I'll go to the next slide just asking if the commission has any questions or feedback on this. This is something that I'll probably pull up at at each meeting so it's something that you can make comments on. I mean it's kind of just a starting point and it's meant to keep us on track. It was a interesting exercise to take a work plan and put it into a calendar and say, "Wow, we [laughter] have a lot of stuff that we're doing." So, um, yeah, I think it was a good exercise. But any any thoughts? >> Oh, go ahead. >> Uh, impressive organization. Um I like the subgroups the subcommittee and we'll talk about that um subsequently. Um, one comment about the for those who participated in the one-stop efficiency shop meeting with businesses um July and August sometimes um there even business owners take vacations and I'm wondering if moving that one month into from August to September after Labor Day if that might be a better time to be able to reach the business owners instead of someone covering. >> No, I I really appreciate the feedback. Was that um past experience that you had with with the city? Is that um we did the one-stop efficiency shop? I think >> did you join us, Ashley? And >> and Brian, you were there? >> We did. >> Yeah. So, we went out to reach out to different restaurants. >> Right. Right. Yeah. >> It was an all day. >> Okay. It was there were about five five different teams of commissioner staff along with center for energy and environment. So pretty extensive outreach. >> No, I >> to five different >> quadrants of the city. >> Okay. I just I didn't know if you had those same issues at that time. Thank you for the feedback and I'll definitely take that into account. Um, I talked with CE and I asked them, I can't remember how I pose it, but I I asked them if this was a good time and they said yes. But maybe they were just not thinking very critically and I do want to think critically in this situation because I want to make sure we're using our time, you know, efficiently. So, thank you for that. Um, I actually have a meeting planned with them, I believe, next week or maybe the 1 of February to start talking through this. So, I will bring that up and actually, you know, I'll ask them like what is the best time? Um, I think we also have to work within our, you know, our openings, but maybe I think September is a little tricky because that's kind of like back to school month and but maybe businesses aren't affected by I don't I'll look into it, but thank you. Appreciate that feedback. >> Any other thoughts? >> Commissioner Henry, >> just technical question. You'll probably address this later, but since you mentioned subcommittees on the agenda here, >> there's nine official people in the sustainability commission. How many people do you envision being on each of the subcommittees? >> Yeah, thank you for the uh question. We'll talk about that in the next item, but um what actually the work plan says two two uh members and then plus myself. So it can be up to three I believe based on our majorities but >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Michael. Um are we going to touch more on the subcommittees later? >> Yes. >> Okay. Next item. >> Any other questions for Rally for item 5B? If not and I think the answer is no. I will open and close immediately close the public input portion for this agenda topic. Uh you asked for feedback. We provided you with feedback. There's no vote needed. So we will move on to item 5 C. Thank you, Ellie. >> Sounds great. All right. The long awaited discussion on subcommittee. Um let's see here. Okay. So again, this is just requesting your feedback on who will serve on each committee. So it'd be very helpful if tonight the commission can decide who would like to be on which committee. So that's I guess the goal here. Um overview is that I'll describe what I'm envisioning the subcommittees will uh kind of like the process that they'll follow like what is a subcommittee. These are brand new to both myself and the commission. So um discussion on that work plan um just review of where this was called out and past conversations we had on the matter and then just uh requesting your questions and feedback. So the purpose of the subcommittees, let me pull up my notes here. We had a pretty lengthy discussion on this. Um so we talked about this at the September and November uh sustainability commission meetings. It was a question in the mentee and I asked is this something that the commission is supportive of. Um the commission was very supportive of it. So the the purpose of it is to just essentially provide more activities outside of meetings for commissioners. While some commissioners might prefer the meeting format, others um contact me quite frequently saying, "I want to do more. I want to be more involved and actually, you know, be in the thick of the work." So, if this if that's what you want to be involved with, um this opportunity is for you. Um it also helps us accelerate more engagement opportunities. So, you know, it's it's just me and the sustainability division, if you will. So, the more help that the commission provides with hosting these, the more activities we can host. So that's why I was okay with host um including the two reuse swap events for example in this because the commission also committed to creating um a subcommittee to support that. So your work helps support more engagement and then um overall it's just to help plan events. So that's that's really the main purpose at least how they're added currently. The process will be that commissioners will self- select the subcommittee. Um we'll have about two um commissioners per subcommittee. If someone else really wants to join, we could have three. And then um I will also sit on that subcommittee too. And then I'm envisioning that the meeting schedule will be I prepare a draft agenda. Uh perhaps I sent that out. I send that out and ask for you know any additions to the draft agenda. We'll have uh two to three meetings outside of regular sustainability commission meetings and that's going to vary by topic as you'll see. And I'm envisioning about an hour and a half for each. I think two hours will get a bit long with people that have other commitments and day jobs and that sort of thing. Um an hour might be a bit too short to get enough work done. So hour and a half is what I'm aiming for. Commissioners will select the time. So, um, ideally the the day of, um, that we would meet would be Monday through Friday. Um, I would be okay meeting after, you know, 4:30 after city hall. I'm imagining that time will probably work best for commissioners. So, um, know that that is an option. And ideally, uh, meeting in person would be best. I know, um, Commissioner Carr, who is not present present right now, is interested in being on, I'll just let you know, the tour committee, and he's not here. He's actually in Florida right now um staying down there for a bit. So I told him, you know, if he wants to pro um uh participate virtually, that's fine. So just know that there's two options, but in person is the most ideal. Uh so the first subcommittee would be Oh, yep. >> I was just wondering just because I'm will be going to college in the fall, is this like an entire year commitment? How long of a commitment is this? Like would I be able to do this even though I'm leaving? >> Yeah, great question. Um in a few slides I actually show the schedule on which which months uh the committee would be meeting so we could assign you maybe according to that. Yeah, great thoughts. Um >> are the are these subcommittee meetings considered city meetings? So they'll be recorded and they'll be they'll be what? Beholden to the same laws and restrictions that the commission meetings are held to. >> Yeah. Uh, okay. Yeah. So, no, they're not considered regular open public meetings because we're meeting with less than a quorum was my understanding. Is that what you're understanding? >> Yeah, chair. We would consider this just an ad hoc meeting of of a subset of this group without a quorum, which is why we're saying three or fewer. Okay. >> If there was ever a time in which we decided that it was necessary to have more than the quorum, then we would post it as an open meeting and we would post it in there. To be honest, at that point, I would just say let's just add it as an agenda item. So, but >> thank you. >> Um, so, okay. So, I'll describe each subcommittee. So, there's three that we're proposing. Um again they are actually already included in the recommended work plan that the commission created but the first is the everything electric exhibit. Um one of the targets was that two commissioners would sit on this event planning committee. Um this is to host the two everything electric exhibits. So one is in um June at Summerfest and then the other one is at in September. So we would be meeting you know prior to those events for planning purposes. The other subcommittee would be for um the reuse swap events and we need two committee members for that. And then the third is the education on-site tours. And in the packet I described this a bit. The work plan actually doesn't state that we're going to create a subcommittee for this. But the more I thought about it, I thought this one would actually probably be a pretty fun subcommittee to join. Um, and I think it it helps take um that off of my plate, which you know, some of this stuff can take a really long time. I think also that you as a group might be interested in actually being involved in um more um I guess yeah, just selective of what you want to tour as commissioners. So I had a question about that because I was like I didn't remember tours being a subcommittee. Um, and so that explains that. My only question regarding this is the fact that I >> from what I recall is that we really enjoyed tours as a group. And so when when my from your previous slide and your explanation previous explanation of it, understood that your expectation was for there to be two committee members. And um it sounds like we're already going to one the remaining remainder of us are going to have to arm wrestle for that other spot since Commissioner Carr wants the spot. Um and I was like I don't know how we got around the quorum situation previously because there you know several of us went on the tours previously. Is there something we can do about that? >> Yeah. Um Miss Thomas just noted do are you talking about attending or planning? >> Attending. >> Okay. So these are for planning purposes. >> Yes. This is just planning the tour. >> We could all attend. >> We could all attend, but we just all couldn't plan, >> but processing that event. >> Yeah, I know. And that's fine. So, um, another option, and that was purely in the staff report. >> Maybe I don't want to plan. I don't know. I I'm thinking out loud. I I appreciate you guys working with me. >> So, okay, couple options here. In in the staff report, I included it as the commission could consider creating another subcommittee to plan this. When I say plan, um, it the ideal scenario would be the commissioners maybe decide on where to go and they make the phone call, they make the plan, they're doing the communications, and they secure the spot. I think that's totally within the purview of the sustainability commission as ambassadors. It takes a lot of that time off of my plate, too, so I can do more of the implementation. So, it's kind of a win-win. However, if you all feel like you all want to be more invested in the decision, we could have a discussion item on a regular agenda to say, "Hey, where do you want to go?" Give the subcommittee a set of ideas or maybe even, you know, say, "Hey, this is where we want to go." And then that committee does the calling. That could maybe make it a little bit more um collective. I would say maybe because just based on the schedule and you'll see I think on this next slide um I've pretty strategically put the tours in when there was time for it. So perhaps the February one we kind of leave it to the subcommittee to make the decision and then the November one that I have slated maybe we make that a larger activity where the commission gets involved and decision where to go. Um but I hope that describes it. I guess if there's only two as well. >> Yeah. >> And then it doesn't really at that point then never mind. That's fine. I And that I feel like that's how we previously have done it in the past anyway. So that's fine. Okay. Thank like with we all talk about it and then it's >> the options are kind of narrowed down and then usually obviously it was the coordinator but then so now it's going to the subcommittee. So thank you. I feel like that that explains a little bit more. >> Yeah. And we're always you know able to do more tours but I look at this list and it looks like a lot. So the the work plan said at minimum we would do two tours. So if we you know find ourselves having more free time we can certainly add more tours. Um so yeah so this is the schedule I have highlighted when the subcomittes will subcommittees will meet. Um it might look confusing because sometimes I say uh all subcommittees. So you know you're that's why you're not seeing as many highlights but the everything electric group would meet in March. Here I'll circle it. I think you can see my mouse. March, that's representative of the eee May and September. And again, that's to plan for the June events and the October events. So the March and May, we would probably discuss both um just a bit. May more details for June and then in September we would be planning for the October event. Um June takes more planning than the October event, I would say, just based on my experience last year. Were you swaps? Which did you say that the everything electric event was getting together in September? >> Um, it's on the screen if that helps for reference. So >> Oh, okay. >> I have this cheat. No, it's okay. I have a cheat sheet here. >> No, it's okay. Okay. >> Um, Yep. So, March, May, and September. So, then the the reuse swap committee would meet in March and September. And the tour would meet this month, the end of the month at some point in January and then again in September. So I'll go to the next slide. I still have those dates are written on this slide for your reference. So, um, before we get into stating which one you would like to join, I'm going to ask a few questions. So, the first is, do you have any questions on the proposed process like how this would work? Um, anything that's maybe not clear? >> One one question, a clarifying clarifying question. I don't remember when, but we have talked about and listed out different options for touring in the past and we had a >> call a laundry list of possibilities where I actually I think we actually ranked them >> in terms of preference. Um, that might have been prior. >> It was Yeah, it would have been prior to me being here, but I can certainly look in the minutes. >> We did we did that. I I know we did and my commissioners are >> okay >> nodding those that have been here longer know we did do that. Um so that might save a little bit of time just going back to saying well these are the seven or eight nine possibilities now we just have to narrow it down. >> Great >> as opposed to starting from scratch. >> No I appreciate that >> dreaming them up again. >> Great. Um any questions on the proposed subcommittee topics? Yeah, >> sorry, not the topics, but I had a question about the schedule. So, the reuse swaps, it looks like it's in March and September. And when did [clears throat] you say that the swap events would take place? >> Yeah. Sorry, it's a little confusing. Um, the swap events are in April and November. Oh, sorry. No. Yes. Yes. So, April. Um, and the reason for that is that the April one we kind of already know. We we host this every year and it's actually it's a pretty easy event to host. I mean, there just isn't a lot to it. So, right before is fine. Um, November, we have no idea what we're collecting for this yet. So, that's why it's a little bit more in advance. >> Well, it makes sense because Earth Day, so you have the the the subcommittee meeting before that. Yeah. And then this one in the winter is great because people like to exchange warm clothes and it's a good time to do that. So a couple months before gives the subcommittee enough time to do some planning. >> Yeah, >> looks good. >> Um so just to confirm there is a possibility for virtual attendance. >> Um yes. So my understanding is for your term of service that you will your last meeting would be in May. However, I believe your appointment is until the end of June on paper. So I think as an ambassador as a sustainability combass ambassador, you could um participate in all the outreach through June. So you could be at the everything electric event in June. >> Okay. I see. Um, that being said, you and I talked offline a bit, but you were interested in volunteering. You couldn't sit on one of these subcommittees, per se, but you could still volunteer at one of these events if you're still around and want to do that. >> Sure. >> So, um, just to confirm, um, all of these subcommittees meet during September, but if we were gone for that, um, would we be able to join any of these? >> I if if there's a subcommittee that So, let's see. All of these are meeting before I would say feel free to join any of the ones. Don't worry about the September um needs. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. Because they all have the tour, the everything electric, and the swap. They all have things that are happening before June. So, >> yeah, >> if you select one of those, you'll end up participating. So, yeah, great questions. Thanks. Um, so chair, I was going to suggest that you state um each of the So they're down here. Each of the commissions and request that commissioners maybe raise their hand to say, are you interested in this? Um, go through the list to kind of gauge how many are interested in each topic. Um, I did want to note that Dave was interested in either the tour or the resource or sorry, reuse swaps. So, I'll just throw that out there. But >> does that does that help? >> Sure, that makes sense. Um, >> all right. Let's have a show of hands excluding myself or I guess I'll be the last one be the last one that would like to be on the planning subcommittee for the everything electric event. Show of hands. One, Michael, myself. Is that too one too many? >> Diane, sorry. >> Sorry. I meant to note if you really want to, you can serve on two subcommittees. Well, I'll throw that out there. Oh, >> you can. >> I would say give everyone an opportunity to at least be on one and, you know, potentially the one that they want the most. Um, >> I think we would have two, four, six. So, all committees should have at least two. One will have three if everyone wants to be on a commission or sorry, committee. Amanda is not here. I have not pulled her. Um, so she might want to be on one. I also didn't know not everyone has to be on a subcommittee either. So if you're someone has kids, works, goes to this, totally understandable if you just want to volunteer at an event and not actually be on a subcommittee meeting. Totally understandable and not a requirement. So again, minimum for each could be actually one. The ideal scenario would be two. So there's a little bit of discussion, but I hope that helps a bit. >> Yes, it does. So we have we have two for sure. You could put me down as an option of third for the everything electric event. [clears throat] >> So you have your notes. So we we'll go on to the reuse subcommittee. Um who would express an interest in being on the planning of the reuse committee? We have uh two commissioners volunteering for that. That would be great. Thank you very much. Our third committee or subcommittee I should say for tours is for tours. We have Dave who has expressed strong interest in uh being part of that. Is anyone else expressing a strong interest for that? If not, I would. >> Okay, great. >> So, we have two then. >> Wonderful. I think that concludes that discussion. >> Miss Thomas, do you just want to summarize? [clears throat] >> I'm not sure how relevant this is, but if when I talk to Sarissa or if city staff talks to Sarissa and if it's possible that I can still serve on the committee going forward, then I'd like to do my part and if there's a option for one of the subcommittees, I'd go for the tour subcommittee. >> Okay, >> that sounds great. >> That's fine. And uh >> I can certainly uh give you the spot, Commissioner Henry, and uh [clears throat] well, we'll see what the decision is from city staff and then we'll proceed from that. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you very much for continuing to offer your expertise and assistance. >> And Miss Sutherland asked me to summarize my notes here. So, I have for everything electric, I have Michael and Diane with Brian as a fill-in as necessary. Um, reuse Ashley and Ellen and then tours Dave and Brian and Matt if uh if that's okay. Great. >> That's correct. Thank you. >> Wonderful. Thank you everyone. Um, that concludes all the regular agenda items. Oh, sorry. Chair, were you? >> Yeah, I'll make my my comment there. >> Um, there no no more questions for Miss Sutherland. So, >> since no one has registered to comment, I will open and immediately close the the public input portion for this agenda's topic. This isformational. You solicited some feedback from us. So, that concludes item 5C. We will move to uh item six, which is report from staff. Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you, chair and commissioners. Uh just a few general staff updates. Our next sustainability commission meeting will be on Tuesday, March 17th. This year, um all regular meetings are every other month on the third Tuesday of the month. So, um that meeting we will again review the sustainable Minnitonka award applications. There will likely be another item, but that one is for sure slated for that. Um related to that, uh the April 20th meeting, it's on a Monday. That's the city council meeting. That's where the sustainable Minnotonka award winners will be recognized. So you're all invited to that. Um I believe we would just have to maybe um post it as an open meeting for the commission. But um if you're willing to come, last year we did a photo, a group photo with all the winners and the sustainability commissioners. So it was really great time. So, I encourage you to to mark that on your calendar if you're available. Um, let's see. Review the Mar Oh, um, well, we already did this, but I just wanted to acknowledge that the the January through March ambassador items are noted in that schedule. So, um, know that I will start posting those again on the signup genius. So, stay tuned for that. And related to that, again, I have been receiving some requests from commissioners about like research opportunities or things that people want to participate in outside of the commission that really haven't been offered on that signup genius opportunity. Right now, we've been very focused on just events. So, I'm going to throw options up on there. Feel free to sign up if you're interested, but know that they're completely optional. I'm just going to start putting more on there. Um, and on a related note, uh, I'll post those on the Friday e- newsws. I know I have not been as consistent in sending those out as of late. Um, but it's a new year and I'm committing [laughter] to being more consistent. So, you can hold me accountable to that. Um, so those will all go out. If I have new signup genius opportunities, I'll make sure that those go out on Fridays, too. >> So, >> very good. Thank you. >> Y. >> Anything else for item six? >> No. That's >> No. Very good. We will move on to item seven, which is a report from our sustain my fellow sustainability commission members. Does anyone have anything they'd like to report or comment on? I I'm asking Ellen, Michael, do you have anything? >> Oh, >> Michael. >> Um, so I'm not so sure if I should do this in other business or not, but um I do write for So, if you could just take one, I'll pass it down. I do write for the Minnitanka High School newspaper and I recently in a previous issue wrote about the sustainability awards that we have and sort of um working with Miss Sutherland about um sort of just advertising it to uh students in it's on page 10 of the second to last one. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. um sort of just like advertising the sustainable Minnotonka awards and urging people that if they have done projects to um apply before March 6th for the uh sustainability awards and so we don't really have any metrics that we use for um our readers but we do or I do expect uh more sort of applications uh this upcoming award cycle. So, just wanted to update the commission on that for in terms of outreach for students and connections with um the community. >> Thank you very much. That was very appropriate. I appreciate that. Uh any other comments at this point. If not, I have >> this is incredible and very timely >> and I recall you said that everyone in the school picks up a copy and actually it's read. Yeah, it's it's plastered on the >> So, you have now as well >> done outreach for >> for the whole >> Yeah, of course. Of course. >> Thank you. >> City of Mitanka. >> Yeah, >> I like to give you some virtual knuckles from over here too. Commissioner >> gave you a physical knuckles but over here too. Thank you very much. >> Oh, that reminds me. There's also a website version for this. So, we have a website and the physical copy as well. And then we sort of try to um give these newspapers out not only in the school but also in like local libraries and uh other places as well. >> Excellent. Thank you, Commissioner Betain. >> Yeah. No, I just wanted to add uh so hopefully we can make sure that we include in uh the minutes a link to the virtual copy. Um and then um is it a by line? Is that what it's called? Look, I'm not the a win for the environment for those who are watching at home, which is probably, you know, just a handful of you, but that is such a good like tagline. a win for the environment. Like I love that. So that is very very nicely done. So we appreciate your work and like spreading the word. Hopefully we get to see some um the fruits of your labor and see some more applications come in. So great job. >> Thank you. I I echo that. Thank you very very much. I [clears throat] have one other comment just to make. It's more for awareness for my fellow commissioners and for anyone who's watching tonight. I wish it was really positive. It's uh it's rather unfortunate. Let me just I wrote down a few notes. I'll be very brief. The federal administration is finalizing its repeal of a foundational scientific determination that underpins the United States government's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. An announcement is expected within the next couple of weeks. It's most unfortunate. I've said this before. The federal government is not supportive. They will not be supportive unless there's a change in administration at the next presidential election. Uh fortunately, Henipin County is supportive, city staff is supportive, and the state of Minnesota is supportive. So, we just simply need to be aware of that. And it's and it's most unfortunate um because it will more it will impact the younger members of our sustainability commission compared to some of us that are not so young anymore. Anyway, that is what I wanted to say. I just wanted to convey that from an awareness perspective. It's rather unfortunate to see that but uh it's not surprising. With that, I want to move to item eight, which is other business. I am asking if there's any other business that anyone cares to share. I do not see anybody uh clamoring with other business. So I will move to item nine which is adjournment. >> Would anyone like to make a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting? Is there a motion? >> All motion. >> Oh there's a second a motion. Uh, Miss Sullivan, would you pull the commissioners? >> Henry, >> yes. >> Ingram, >> yes. >> Meyer, >> yes. >> Patine, >> yes. >> White, >> yes. >> Tolop, >> yes. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much.